Mayor Bass facing blowback over explosive report that she altered wildfire report to downplay city's role
foxnews.com
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is under fire this week after a Los Angeles Times report claiming she successfully altered in her favor a critical after-action report on the devastating southern California wildfires that killed 31 people.
While Bass has repeatedly denied that she interfered with the report, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing two sources, that Bass was concerned that the city could be exposed to legal liability for its lack of preparedness and removed or softened language implicating the city.
One of the key changes, according to the Los Angeles Times, was altering details about failures to fully staff and deploy resources leading up to the fire, an issue that has drawn intense scrutiny over the past year.
The report cites a "Bass confidant" who said "the mayor didn’t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report."
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Bass, who has also drawn criticism for flying to Africa for an event days before the fire broke out despite hazardous conditions in the forecast and warnings about fire risks, has denied the accuracy of the reporting.
Still, widespread outrage has resulted both on social media and from politicians.
"There’s no moving forward until we get the answers and the people that are responsible are fired, and that includes the fire chiefs, the fire battalion chiefs, that includes the mayor, it includes anybody that had anything to do with this," reality TV star Spencer Pratt, running for mayor of Los Angeles, told Fox Los Angeles while standing next to the burnt remains of his Palisades home that was destroyed in the fire.
Businessman Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Bass and is said to be mulling another run, called the report an "outrage" and said that Bass "actively covered up a report meant to examine the most significant disaster in Los Angeles history."
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